Book Review – The BFG

I first read The BFG when I was in 4th grade. I devoured anything by Roald Dahl that I could find and this one was by far my favorite. I recently finished reading it aloud to my daughter (she’s 8 and going into 3rd grade). I love rereading my childhood favorites because it’s interesting to have both the child and the adult perspective.

The BFG was not quite as marvelous as I remembered, but that’s not saying much. I still really enjoyed the book . . . and it was extra exciting to introduce my daughter to one of my favorite children’s authors.

The BFG is about a special giant and a little girl named Sophie. The two of them become great friends and work together to stop nine ghastly giants who like to gobble up “human beans.” I forgot some of the horrible details of this book and it’s actually one of the things I love about Roald Dahl – he shows a respect for children’s ability to separate fantasy from reality and doesn’t need to make everything perfect and wonderful. Children actually get eaten in the book, which sounds atrocious, but it certainly didn’t give my daughter any nightmares . . . and it obviously had no ill effect on me.

My daughter absolutely loved the book. She said it was funny, scary, and really goofy . . . and she especially loved that each chapter provided so much detail (probably the bit that made it less appealing to me, interestingly enough). She gives it 5/5 stars. I almost gave it 4/5 stars, but had to remind myself that this is a children’s book and I shouldn’t take off just because as an adult it wasn’t as wonderful as it was as a child.

Overall, wonderful book for kids (I’d say between 2nd and 6th grades, probably needing to read aloud at the earlier grades . . . though as a warning – the BFG talks oddly and makes reading aloud a bit tricky at times 😛 ).